!!! A Potential New Nest Site in Mississauga North
April 06, 2012 - International, National and Local News
Tracy Simpson Reports:
Just when we thought the dance card was full, along comes another couple to shake things up!! Out of all of the observations gathered by Toivo and Winston over the past few weeks, we knew that there was more than one pair hanging about in the Brampton / Mississauga area. Over the long weekend, after a check of the courthouse and confirming the identity of the pair there, we made our way down to Hurontario and Brittania, the area that our Brampton watchers have identified as a hot spot of activity. For the first 40 minutes there was no sign of peregrines when all of a sudden, out of the east, a pair showed up and landed on 5800 Hurontario St. just south of the intersection. There the female sat on the south side while the male couldn’t seem to decide on a spot. He sat on the same face of the building but would alter ledges every few minutes. We pulled out the scopes and cameras and were able to determine that this indeed was someone new. The female is a full adult and we could clearly make out the Black over Green recovery band on the left leg and the purple USFW band on the other telling us she is an American girl. We then turned our attention to the male and were able to clearly see the solid Black recovery band used here on his left leg and a silver USFW band on the right; a Canadian boy. We continued to watch but the winds were not in our favour for getting the alpha numerics off of either male or female as our scopes were vibrating in the brisk winds. One thing we are certain of, these birds are not the pair from Brampton and as the MEC birds are both unbanded, it couldn’t be either of them!!
They continued to sit on the south face of 5800 Hurontario for a while and then the pair quickly launched into the air and headed northwest; but not far. We followed them up the road to 55 Standish Court where we found the female on the southern Wells Fargo sign and the male on the eastern sign. The female was restless and would wander along the length of the sign, turn, dip, scrape and then settle. She did this several times indicating her interest in Canadian real estate for raising the kids!! There they stayed well into dusk when we finally left.
The following day, the pair was absent for much of the time until after 5:30pm when once again, out of the east, the pair arrived and landed on the south side of 5800 Hurontario St. Toivo spent some time driving out to the east to look for a potential hunting area for the birds and may have found a few likely spots. The male arrived first and landed on the south side followed shortly by the female who ended up on a small ledge on the very southwestern corner of the building. The male flew over to the next building, waited for his cue and then flew in for breeding. As we left that Saturday evening, both adults were on 5800 Hurontario St. on opposite corners of the western face.
What makes this potential new site so interesting is the choice of location. The Brampton courthouse pair is 5km straight north on Hurontario St.; can’t go that way! The MEC pair is 5 km straight south on Hurontario St.; can’t go that way either! That leaves this pair a hunting corridor along the west - east axis where they won’t encroach on another territory and that is exactly where we see them coming from; due east. While they haven’t indicated which ledge they are interested in as of yet, it would appear that 5800 Hurontario St. is the place to be and we will continue to update you on this new pair as the details emerge.
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